Analysis: Trivia

Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge

Forster's A Passage to India is dedicated to Syed Ross Masood, a young Indian man he tutored and subsequently befriended. The character of Dr. Aziz is based loosely on Masood. (Source: Childs, Peter. E. M. Forster's A Passage to India: A Sourcebook. London: Routledge, 2002.)

The character Aadam Aziz in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is a nod to Dr. Aziz in Forster's novel. Rushdie's Midnight's Children won the Best of the Booker prize in 2008. (Source)

Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire and one of the character Aziz's favorite historical figures, was a descendent of Genghis Khan. He was the first of the Mughals to employ gunpowder and artillery, which gave him an edge over his enemies' elephants. (Source)